'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again,' goes an idiom that encourages us never to give up. This helps us when applied to the challenges that we face in life but would this still encourage us if it's applied to God? One might feel alarmed if we hear from the prophet Jeremiah about the clay turning out badly in God's hands, because shouldn't God be perfect all the time? God is perfect but we, the clay in God's hands, can sometimes be wilful and unwilling to be worked on. That's when things go bad.

But the encouragement that we get is that no matter what, we're still held by the gentle hands of the potter. The challenges and brokenness that we feel right now is not the end of the story as we continue to become the raw material for God's next work of art. Remembering this allows us to truly pick ourselves up and ‘try, try again,' knowing that it's not us that's in charge but God. Knowing that we're always held in God's hands as we move along in our journeys can be immensely comforting, allowing us the freedom to do all we can because God has our back.

We ask for the grace to be able to trust God, knowing that God is there to hold and mould us.